Noel Pearson breaks silence on Indigenous voice referendum on stage with Stan Grant at Woodford

Noel Pearson has made his first comments on the failed voice vote on stage with Stan Grant at the Woodford Festival.

Noel Pearson has made his first public comments since the failed voice referendum. Picture: Brendan Radke

Noel Pearson, the reforming leader who campaigned for an Indigenous voice for a decade, has broken his three-month long silence on the failed referendum.

In his first public comments since Australians voted against enshrining a national Indigenous advisory body to government in the constitution, one audience member told The Australian that Mr Pearson has lamented that Indigenous affairs are in a worse state than before the October 14 vote.

Another audience member, ex-News Corp and AAP photographer David Kapernick, said on social media that Mr Pearson accused Anthony Albanese of “running away” from indigenous affairs.

“Noel Pearson and Stan Grant at Woodford Folk festival discussing what to do now after referendum. Not impressed with Albanese … says he’s running away and will do nothing,” Mr Kapernick tweeted.

Mr Pearson was in conversation with journalist Stan Grant at Woodford Folk Festival of culture, music and arts north of Brisbane on Saturday.

The Cape York leader made his comments after Anthony Albanese excluded the referendum defeat from his wrap of the events of 2023 then described the referendum defeat as no loss to him.

The Prime Minister’s Christmas Day remark that the voice defeat “wasn’t a loss to me” was met with shock and disgust by some Indigenous proponents of the voice.

At the Exodus Foundation in Sydney’s inner west where he helped serve Christmas Day lunch to the poor, Mr Albanese was asked during a 2GB interview about his year and “some big losses” such as the defeat of the voice at the ballot box last October.

“Oh, no, no, no, no, very important to call that out. I am not Indigenous so it wasn’t a loss to me,” the Labor leader said.

“That stays exactly the same the way it is. I do think that it was disappointing for First Nations people but they’re used to you know, getting the, they’re used to hardship. It’s been the case for 200 years, and they are resilient and we will continue to do what we can to provide for closing the gap.

“But it’s one of the things about this debate, it was never about politicians, it was actually about the most disadvantaged people in our society.”

One figure in the Yes ­campaign criticised Mr Albanese for claiming no sense of personal loss after championing the referendum, ­including in his election-night victory speech in May last year.

Another called on Labor to commission a review of the ­“referendum debacle” and the ­Albanese government’s role in it.

“Blacks did the work for seven years and Labor killed it,” one said.

More to come